Val Castro was a long time UCLA Intramural Department employee who
exemplified the important values of hard work, friendship, kindness and
positive life outlook. His sudden passing from cancer in 2007 united the
alumni whose lives he touched to organize the Val Castro Memorial Golf
Tournament, scheduled for Friday, May 29 at Coyote Hills Golf Course in
Fullerton California. Heralded as one of the premier golf courses in Southern
California, Coyote Hills will provide the backdrop for this fun-filled day of
golf. Following the round, golfers will be treated to a complimentary lunch
banquet and silent auction, with proceeds from the auction benefiting the
Castro Family and UCLA Recreation Intramural Sports Student Development.

If you plan to register or want to sponsor a UCLA student to golf, please click here and you will be forwarded to the Collegiate Golf Alliance where you can sign up:

Or, to simply make a donation, please make checks payable to “UCLA Golf Club” & mail to:

UCLA Recreation, Attn: Julian Mintz
2131 John Wooden Center
Los Angeles, CA 90095

There are plenty of young women golfers following Sorenstam’s lead, realizing that women can also excel in what used to be known as a man’s sport. Players like Michelle Wie, Brittany Lang, Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel are all beginning to make a name for themselves. Creamer, a 2005 high school graduate, had already earned more than half a million dollars this year alone by the time she took her diploma.

Many of these young women are coming up through the ranks of LPGA-USGA Girls Golf, a developmental junior golf program designed to not only teach girls the game of golf, but also life values such as patience, respect, perseverance and honesty. These girls are also learning to lead a physically-fit lifestyle. More than 4,500 girls ages 7-17 participate at 181 sites nationwide.

This is an exciting time for women’s golf and an opportunity for young players to make their mark in history.

From the last article, you are now at the minus one month point. So far you have rallied the troops, picked the dates, selected the lodging and golf courses and are in the final preparation stage. You will soon see your friends smiling faces at the airport baggage claim. The final preps and smoothly running the whole show are child’s play. The tough part was getting your bunch of friends to buy the tickets to enjoy the event. Here are a few things you will want to do before the scream of the aircraft’s tires on the tarmac.
1. Transportation. The limiting factor is arrival and departure from the airport due to clubs AND suitcases. If you can just barely stuff everyone in the vehicles at this point, the rest of the week is gravy. From your experience, you know that when you pack up four guys to go golfing locally, you will entirely fill the trunk of a full sized car. With that in mind, you should plan on a full sized car for every three people. We use one minivan/SUV augmented with cars for our adventures. Just make sure you allow for the limiting case.

You need to arrange these rental vehicles ahead of time, but you can only drive one yourself. Here is the minus one-month mandatory. When you figure out your vehicle requirements, contact the group to arrange among them and you who will contact and rent the remaining vehicles. There will probably be some in your group that have existing discounts and can score a great rate. Hash this one out via email.

2. Entertainment. Unless you are going to the deserts in Arizona or get exceedingly lucky, you will have a rain day or two. You will also have a bunch of time at night after golf (after you have all told your lies). We suck that time up pretty effectively watching the golf channel, ESPN, playing cards, or watching videos. The latter is what you can address ahead of time. We have a guy that is pretty good at selecting movies to watch and we task him to bring them with him. Movies like “Gladiator”, “Miracle”, etc. are big. Some of your group may even have an adult video you may want to avail yourselves of. On severe rain days, we also have gone bowling (a real hoot), done the local movie theater, and toured the area.

3. Checklists. After about ten years of being asked twenty times per day where we were playing the next day, or when we had to leave, or what was for supper, or who stole my teddy bear, I finally started typing out these things. I make a copy of each and post sporadically throughout the house. I make individual laminated cards and hand to each golfer. Know what? It reduced the questions to half and now when asked, I say that I can’t remember, let me walk over to the frig and read it for you. Here are the things I prepare ahead of time.

- Listing of course, tee times, course contact number, and departure time. I base departure time on MapBlast directions and factor in a stop for ice for the coolers and if we will need to hit range balls.

- Listing of the menu for the evening meals. If this is your first time, keep the menu simple and make sure you have the recipes in hand. With any size group, you are going to have a chef or two and this won’t be a big deal.

- Multiple copies of the “order sheet” for sandwiches. For most of our noon meals between rounds, we dine on our self-prepared, gourmet sandwiches prepared the night before. As you saw from the previous articles, I solicit what the group wants and have that on the shopping list. What winds up being the least confusing way is to have some sheet for people to circle or fill in to specify what sandwiches they want for the next day. You rotate the preparers (two is best) every night and with that sheet, they manufacture the gourmet feast. (Don’t discount this! The sandwiches you make will be superior to anything short of the full meal at the course AND you will not have to wait on it if you are pressed for time between your rounds.)

- Biggy! We did not keep a record of our scores for our first few years. Big mistake. What great history we tossed out. Keep a record! I prepare a hard copy sheet to fill in as we go. It allows us to follow who is the overall stroke leader and gives us all ammo to use in negotiating the next day’s bets. I take this home and plant it permanently on our golf website .

- Expenses. I pay for everything with minor exceptions. That keeps it simple. I currently use a spreadsheet to administer this. It works great. I would provide this for you, but this article format doesn’t allow. Before that, I simply used pen and paper and got it to within a penny. My point is that from the minute you start your adventure, keep a tally of what you have spent! Streamline course check in by paying for everyone, buy all the food and drink, buy all the gas, etc. If someone pays for anything, log it in immediately. If you are religious in this, you will have no complaints, only praise.

4. Things nobody else will bring but you.

- Several decks of cards, poker chips
- Cribbage boards
- Screw driver and pliers (you never know)
- Pens, pencils and permanent markers (you will need all)
- Over the counter pain killers
- Band-Aids
- Game

5. Arrival. So here you have a rambunctious group of friends descending on the Mecca of golf. You have motored to the house your staying in and it is the mad dash to the best room to be found. NOT. To avoid any hard feelings between the lodger that got the queen bed and the lodger that got the twin bed, simply set up a quick draw out of the hat. For subsequent years, do the same, but use the seniority system. Once a person misses, he goes to the end of the list.

6. Once you have dumped your bags in the drawn rooms, it is time to go shopping. With the template I gave you in the last article, and with your modifications based on menu and orders, grab one or two volunteers and get what you need.

This is the conclusion of my recommendations on how you can have the best golf outing or outings you have ever had. Since I have folks coming to enjoy my preparations for 19 years should be testimony to you. At least give it a shot once. It won’t be perfect, but my guess is that it will be superior and more remembered than anything you can buy as a package. Go for it!

Is today’s female golfer really that different? You need only look as far as statistics from previous years in combination with current levels of play to answer that question. In 1998, only 7 short years ago, Annika drove the ball 246 yards in average driving distance. Today, her average distance is 272 yards. Since undergoing a full scale assault on fitness with the help of a personal trainer, she has gained close to 30 yards in new found distance.

Is she the lone ranger in women’s golf or the wave of the future? Back in 1998, if an LPGA player drove the ball 250 yards, she was in the top 17 players in her field. Today, a player who drives the ball 250 yards won’t even place in the top 40. What accounts for these new performance standards and how can female golfers around the country prepare for high level competition?

Build a Foundation – Learning how to properly engage the core muscles provides a platform of stability and level of protection from injury. In order to keep your body from breaking down and affecting your golf swing, exercises aimed at restoring muscular balance should be a natural part of program design. As you continue to build foundational strength, you also improve your resistance to fatigue.

Progressive Resistance – Strength should be developed in a progressive manner. In order to get stronger one needs to progressively add resistance over time relative to previous workouts. Strength gains are made slowly, but consistently and you will see the difference in your game in no time. In the absence of progress with your program, you’re limiting your potential. Progression also involves varying your speeds of movement as your body becomes more adapted to each exercise.

Today’s female golfer knows that hard work creates results and translates to a better position in the playing field. If you are looking for ways to take yourself to the top of the leader board, then place the needs of your body at the top of your priority list to make a definitive difference in your game.

Glimpse into these greens hailed as the world’s five top golf courses, as compiled by Golf Magazine. Golfer or not, you will be enthralled and intrigued how these ultra expansive natural settings that seemingly stretch out to the sky in interesting meandering patterns and heights can be so ultra secluded from the public eye.

Pine Valley Golf Club

Located in Pine Valley, New Jersey USA, the Pine Valley Golf Club hits the number one spot. The golf course is reported to take up vast acres of greeneries, so vast that each golfer would feel a sense of isolation, not knowing that other golfers playing in other sections of the fairways feel the same.

Interestingly, Pine Valley is not new in receiving prestige and recognition in the sports world of golf. Records indicate this gold course was already at the number three spot in 1939 in a ranking by Golf Club atlas. In Golf Magazine’s biennial rankings, it has remained at the top since 1991.

But Pine Valley does not only boast of quantity in acres but the quality of the course as well. In fact, it is also considered to be one of the toughest courses. If you crave for challenge, privacy, and ultimate golfing experience, go Pine Valley.

Cypress Point Club

Cypress Point, the number two choice, is the most beautiful course. Located in Pebble Beach, California USA, it is positioned in a piece of land that meets the blue waters of the beach.

This 18-hole golf course has bunkers that have been strategically and fascinatingly built such that there is a seamless connection between what’s natural and man-made. Hole No. 16, specifically, continues to captivate golf lovers, having been acclaimed as the ultimate one-shotter in existence.

St. Andrews Golf Club

The world’s number three golf course located in St. Andrews Fife, Scotland is the number in Europe, and the oldest in the world. Europe’s quaint setting, which gives off a more relaxed and laidback ambiance so compatible with the nature of this sport, makes this region truly a golfer’s paradise.

The world first experienced golf in Scotland, right here in St. Andrews, as early as the 12th century. It received a royal patronage in 1854. Now, it is considered as the world’s oldest surviving “royal” golf club.

St. Andrews is not really that striking in appearance to new golfers. Its appeal grows as you familiarize yourself with its landscapes, reinforcing the fact that knowledge of course management is a key in golf strategy games.

Augusta National Golf Club

The number four is located in Augusta, Georgia USA. Each of Augusta’s 18 holes has been named after a flower that has come to be associated with it. During grand tournaments, these flowers are in full bloom thereby creating a colorful and festive natural backdrop as you begin those back swings.

But more importantly, Augusta has been characterized with broad fairways, exciting elevation changes, and slick greens that will pose real challenge to skilled golfers.

Shinnecock Hills Golf Club

Golf course number five is located in Southhampton, New York USA. It was originally a 12-hole course remodeled into 18-hole layout in 1895. Its impressive layout features undulating greens and bunkers backdropped with tree canopies, shrubs as well as ponds.

This peek into the world’s best five can be overwhelming. A walk into their greens, a swing into their air, and a golf game follow-through through their fairways, bunkers, and other intriguing nooks and spots will definitely sum up into a par that, in terms of experience, is victory itself.

So many of the best golfers in the game are real big dorks right? I mean you can totally see why to, they have never had to do anything in life but play a game and they have been spoon fed by their mommies since day one. They don’t know what real life is about and that some people have had to work hard for not a lot of money and not everyone gets to have world class golf instruction from day one. They really are pretty ignorant and this, it is my contention, is what makes them among the biggest dorks that there is. So if these sorts of people are wearing a certain attire, that would make golf apparel pretty bad wouldn’t it?

I mean really, who wears black and white shoes anymore except out on the links? Who wears dress shorts with shoes and socks? Only golfers really and it is right in line with the rest of the golf apparel scene. There is no sensible reason other than these guys wake up in the morning and have their clothes laid out for them by there mommies, or wives which are really no better, and they put them on without even thinking. Why should they have to think, they make more money than the rest of us and so if wearing dorky clothes is what they must do than that is what they must do.

Now the real question is why doesn’t the general public see this problem and boycott all golf apparel until it becomes cool? Why do we put up with the fashion mishaps that we get by trusting a bunch of lily butts and their mommies for the clothes that we wear on the golf course? I am here to institute a new dress code that allows things like t shirts and sweat pants out on the course so that the rest of us can feel comfortable when we golf rather than all uptight, from being in clothes that make us real dorks.

It is exactly the same in the golfing game. Those amateur golfers who are ignoring the great changes that we have witnessed in the golfing game in recent times have run into lots of difficulties and many of them no longer enjoy playing the game they way they used to, not too long ago. Some have even altogether given up the golfing game.
Many of these frustrated golfers have failed to see the tremendous changes in the golfing game that have ended up affecting them.

One of them is the change in the way golfers are training and preparing themselves for major tourneys and games. Actually the golfing game has always been considered a leisure activity where one need not even break into a sweat, let alone exercise.

However this thinking and approach has changed completely in recent years. Most professional golfers these days schedule regular golf exercises into their daily routine. Numerous amateur golfers have done the same and the result is that even the physical appearance of major players of the golfing game has changed. They are getting more and more physically fit.

When you compete with players of the golfing game who are involved in a golf-specific exercising program, the going can get very tough, because the level of their game is bound to be much higher than yours.

And contrary to what many people think, these exercises as not so rigorous. My program has included senior citizens of upto 80 years old who have no problem in adapting to the exercises. And in the end the golf exercises have had a tremendously positive impact on their golfing game.

Don’t knock it till you try it there are great many women who enjoy swinging a golf stick on the green but sadly the female species consider retirement age is the best time to take up this sport. How wrong they are.

This is a game that provides the young and old with a mixture of emotions, happiness/contentment/peace/tranquillity and at the same time a guaranteed feeling of satisfaction.
Men and women who love the game to an extent where they reach a certain level love the fact that they are now in a position to qualify and play in tournaments.Having confidence on the green is a great start for any novice. Learners can become paranoid where they experience a bout of nerves believing other golfers are there to poke fun. Believe me other avid enthusiasts on the golf course are too busy setting there sights on a hole in one and can not afford to be distracted by the next up and coming Tiger Woods or Mrs Woods

Women starting out will benefit by visiting the local driving range to brush up hitting the ball. Why you ask? Simple, it is not as easy as it looks therefore adding more fun to the game for beginners.
This Sport is enjoyed by millions worldwide so why not add you’re self to the list. The next time your husband/partner invites you to join him in a game/round of golf go for it.

Ladies ever felt something is missing in your life, do you have regrets of never snatching opportunities that passed you by. Ever had the feeling what your life was all about.
Well let me tell you life is about fulfilment and achievement. Depending on the individual the answer to your wish list of finding happiness may well just lie on a golf course.

Terms used in a game of golf relate to the names of our feathered friends Like Birdie an Eagle. Well let us kill two birds with one stone. Number one you get to play golf and secondly the most important is the quality time you get to spend with your spouse/partner.

And fingers crossed that the husband can keep his concentration on the birds that give him points not the chick he would most love to score with.